A New Type of Carcinostatic Agent

Abstract

THERE are various ways of approaching the cancer problem. One way is to attempt to find substances which will prevent mitosis. For if cancer is due to uncontrolled cell division, the inhibition of cell division by relatively harmless substances would be a means of combating the disease. For some years it has been argued that the initiation of cell division is due to a clotting reaction in the protoplasmic colloid, a reaction that leads to the formation of the mitotic spindle, and it has been urged that anti-clotting agents can successfully inhibit cell division. The evidence for this point of view has been summarized in a recent monograph¹. Heparin can prevent cell division, but for one reason or another it is not a highly successful agent in retarding the growth of a tumour. Extracts of ovaries are more potent antimitotic agents², and indeed such extracts obtained from the ovaries of various invertebrates, from the ovaries of many fishes, and from the ovaries of amphibians and mammals can keep protoplasm fluid and thus prevent the mitotic gelation which is a necessary precursor of the division of the cell.